New releases this week: Dubstep

Review: FoxBam Inc returns with its fourth EP featuring a powerful mix of floor-shaking productions. The release includes contributions from Gez Varley, best known for his work with LFO and classic tracks like 'Quo Vardis' alongside Italian acid producer Vikkei and label founders Foxtrot and Egebamyasi. This new one opens with the acid-heavy 'Battle Scars' while Vikkei delivers the hard techno 'Hip 'n' Crack.' Egebamyasi explores bass-driven wobbly dubstep with 'Mandubchester' and Varley's 'Saturn One' brings cinematic vibes to his signature techno style. Launched in 2023, FoxBam Inc is already becoming a key player in the underground.

Review: Sneaker Social Club is one of the more low-key UK labels but its output is high-class, and often explores myriad forms of bass music with a retro glint in its eye but plenty of future intent. The four-piece collective Legion is Trends, Boylan, P Jam and D.O.K. and now they return to follow up their debut 2021 release on Artikal Music. The EP opens with 'Rastaman,' a raw half-step dubstep track with eerie atmospheres and heavy bass, embracing minimalist and high-definition sound. 'Souls' pushes a jerky groove while maintaining the EP's spartan mood and 'Sister Abigail' amplifies the sinister Legion sound with metallic dissonance. Closer 'Play That Vibe' channels a 2010s dubstep techy feel. This EP is a ruthless yet finely tuned masterclass in sound design and arrangement.

Review: Plenty of lad argot might rightly refer to the state of being blackout drunk, but few are so evocative and spot-on than the word "trollied". Right too that it should work its way into this fresh collaboration between Tunic and Sentient, neither of whom are newcomers but whose twin efforts are news to Dub Colony, fresh outta Bern, Switzerland. 'Trollied' and 'Dread' chart the course of a regrettable night at 140bpm, with high-brushing womp basses and nauseating bumps in the night, while 'Synapse Flare' and 'Shallow Grave' veer more experimental, their sludge-muffling sound design and triplet wois offering the listener a fork in the road between a return to full cognitive function or early death.